


Second Thoughts

by I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning



Series: Adopted Prompts [17]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Aftermath of The Lawless, Aftermath of The Wrong Jedi, Aftermath of Tup & Fives, Bitter-sweet, Contains What Could Be Fix-It Seeds But This Story Ends Too Early To Know For Sure, Even Without My Help, F/M, Gen, Heavy Angst, No one Dies IN This Story But Some Died BEFORE It (Canon), Not A Fix-It, Revenge of the Sith AU, The Ending of Clone Wars is Sad, heavy on the bitter, suspicion of cheating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-08 21:32:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16437197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning/pseuds/I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning
Summary: Palpatine insinuates Obi-Wan is having an affair with Padmé. It's easy for Anakin to believe at first, until he remembers Obi-Wan's broken grief for Satine, just days earlier.





	Second Thoughts

**Author's Note:**

> [Moddy on tumblr](http://swpromptsandasks.tumblr.com/) released this prompt in a Prompt Run to find another home.
> 
> Original Prompt: When Palpatine try to make Anakin believes Obi-Wan is sleeping with Padme, Anakin remembers Satine and Obi-Wan’s grief and starts doubting the Chancellor…

 

Anakin stormed from the Senate, hurt and anger warring for control of his being.

When he stepped into Padmé's apartment, he knew he looked morose, but how  _ else  _ was he supposed to look?

The Chancellor believed Obi-Wan was sleeping with Padmé.

There was no way in hell the Chancellor would say such a thing lightly, without  _ really  _ thinking it through. He knew how much  _ both  _ of these people meant to Anakin.

How much the betrayal would hurt.

He paused by the couch where he'd cuddled with Padmé so many times, and caught a hint of his former master's presence still lingering in the Force.

“Obi-Wan's been here,” he said, something going cold in his heart.

Padmé moved closer to rub his arm. “He's worried about you,” she murmured, and from her tone, Anakin could tell she felt the same. “He says you've been under a lot of stress.”

_ Why would he come here to talk about me unless... _

_He knows about us._

Though, really, could he be sleeping with Padmé  _ without  _ knowing?

Anakin tried to keep his breathing even, tried to hide the fear and fury from his face.

He couldn't  _ handle  _ one more betrayal right now. Tup had murdered a Jedi then died, Fives had gone crazy and nearly murdered the Chancellor,  _ Ahsoka  _ had been gone for a  _ week and a half,  _ and Anakin had no idea where she'd gone since she hadn't contacted him since. She could be anywhere. In trouble. Hurt, needing help—

_ Kidnapped,  _ again, by slavers or pirates or Trandoshans or—

But the thought of enemies who might try to kidnap a loved one brought Anakin's mind to a screeching halt.

Two days before Ahsoka walked away from him without a backwards glance, Obi-Wan had returned from Mandalore.

He'd fallen to his knees, silent,  _ broken  _ sobs tearing through him.

Anakin had never experienced grief not paired with  _ fury  _ at what had been taken from him, but Obi-Wan's signature in the Force in that moment had been pure, unmixed  _ pain.  _

He didn't care about his dignity or image. He forgot to try to soothe Anakin to keep his former Padawan from being afraid for him. There was simply a man who had been torn in  _ fripping  _ two enduring a loss Anakin couldn't even look at too closely, or fear for Padmé completely swamped him.

There had been blood on the armor he wore, on his face, on his hands, and none of it was his own. It all belonged to the woman he loved.

_ How could that man turn around and seduce my wife? _

Since Obi-Wan turned to her when he was worried about Anakin, that meant he  _ knew.  _

_ And if he knows, and he understands the agony of losing someone you love so fiercely, would he inflict that pain on  _ me,  _ the only family he has left since both Qui-Gon and Satine have died, and Ahsoka has left us? _

_Because she left him too._

And Anakin had discounted the anguish Obi-Wan felt as only being for Satine when Ahsoka walked away...

_ But he is undoubtedly grieving her as well. She was  _ our  _ Padawan. He had his  _ own  _ bond with her, and she probably cut that one as well. _

The tension drained out of Anakin's body, and he felt the tears crowding in.

Tears he hadn't wept since Ahsoka  _ left  _ him.

He'd been running too fast, working too hard, trying to keep that terrible emptiness and self-doubt from catching up, and now it  _ did. _

_ I must have done something wrong. She wouldn't have just  _ left  _ me otherwise. I failed her somehow. What did I do? Or maybe it was something I  _ didn't  _ do—? _

And even if Ahsoka didn't want to be a Jedi anymore, didn't she understand that neither Obi-Wan nor Anakin would  _ judge  _ her for it? That they  _ loved  _ her and wanted to still be  _ in her life  _ somehow? Hell, even Padmé was friends with her and loved her, and Ahsoka had just cut them completely out of her life.

The silence in the Force was deafening.

You didn't cut Force-bonds with people you just needed a  _ vacation  _ from.

She had no intention of ever coming back.

_ Why would she leave me? Did she not love me at all— ever? I thought, I thought— _

When his wife's arms guided him to sit on the couch he followed, and allowed her to hold him close while the silent tears slipped down his cheeks.

Just because Ahsoka had chosen to leave them bleeding on the ground didn't mean Padmé would. Or that Obi-Wan would.

_ I can't let my faith in the people I love be shaken just because of the actions of one. _

And Force, he  _ loved  _ Ahsoka still. If she would only let him know she was  _ okay—  _ he'd even stay away, if she wanted to experiment with her newfound independence, but—

_ I thought I could count on her. Even when no one else did. _

He dragged in a ragged breath.

_ She's still young. She's seventeen, she's impulsive, she probably didn't realize what she was doing to Obi-Wan and me. Why would she? She's never felt what a bond you didn't agree to break feels like. _

Anakin had lost his Mom. Obi-Wan had lost Qui-Gon.

_ They  _ knew what a broken Force-bond felt like.

But how could Ahsoka be expected to know in her  _ heart,  _ not just in theory?

_ And hell, I did so very many stupid things at seventeen. _

Anakin held Padmé close and breathed in the sincerity of her care for him in the Force.

Thought of Obi-Wan, grieving alone at the Temple.

_ I have to go to him. _

Palpatine was wrong.

Anakin didn't care what rumors there might be.

_ He is wrong. _

 

 


End file.
